Intelligent routing of media items

ABSTRACT

In certain embodiments, automated routing of media items between user devices may be facilitated. In some embodiments, a routing computer system may automatically obtain images or videos from one or more sources. The routing computer system may perform object recognition on the contents of the images or videos to identify individuals or other objects in the images or videos. The routing computer system may assign first and second images or videos of the images or videos to a first media item group based on (i) the first and second images or videos having similar metadata and (ii) the object recognition identifying an individual or object in the first image or video and an individual or object in the second image or video that are similar to each other. The routing computer system may automatically transmit the first image or video to one or more user devices based on the assignment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/672,740, (now U.S. Pat. No. 11,089,086), filed on Nov. 4, 2019(issued Aug. 10, 2021) and entitled “INTELLIGENT ROUTING OF MEDIA ITEMS”which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/985,807,(now U.S. Pat. No. 10,489,799) filed May 22, 2018 (issued on Dec. 3,2019) and entitled “INTELLIGENT ROUTING OF MEDIA ITEMS,” which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/002,221 (now U.S.Pat. No. 10,051,036), filed Jan. 20, 2016 (issued Aug. 14, 2018) andentitled “INTELLIGENT ROUTING OF MEDIA ITEMS,” which claims the prioritybenefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/107,021, filedJan. 23, 2015 and entitled “Intelligent Routing of Media Items.” each ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present invention relates generally to facilitating the sharing ofdigital media items between source computing platforms and end computingplatforms based on information associated with the media items.

BACKGROUND

Digital media items such as photos, videos, written text, and/or otherdigital media items may be generated on a frequent basis, by both humanusers and machines. Users may wish to share the digital media itemsgenerated by other users, by machines, and/or by other sources.Organization of media items may be key to allow for efficient accessand/or handling of the media items by users who may wish to access oneor more of the media items and/or a collection (also referred to as agroup) of one or more media items. Organization may be difficult whenone or more media items may be edited (e.g., changed in some way) by auser and/or machine, deleted, and/or added to a collection of existingmedia items.

Information used to organize a collection of media items may includeinformation stored as metadata associated with individual ones of themedia items. Metadata and/or other information associated with a givenmedia item may include one or more timestamps, a physical location wherethe media item was generated, user-generated information, and/or otherinformation. In some embodiments, metadata may be referred to as“labels” and/or “tags” associated with a given media item. However, evenwith the embodiment of metadata and/or

other information associated with individual media items, organizationefforts may still fail to meet user expectations. By way of non-limitingexample, users desiring to access and/or retrieve one or more mediaitems from a collection of media items may perform metadata keywordsearches, but still may have to sift through results to find the mostrelevant ones.

SUMMARY

One or more aspects of the disclosure relate to a system forfacilitating the sharing of media items between source computingplatforms and end computing platforms, and/or other locations. Sourcecomputing platforms may be associated with human users, automatedmachines, and/or other considerations. By way of non-limiting example,users of the system may be “subscribers” to, or “members” of, aparticular type or types of media items that may be shared by a sourcecomputing platform. One or more aspects of the disclosure are related tomaking media items easy to locate, allowing actions to be triggeredautomatically (including, but not limited to, automatic routing of amedia item to one or more users, generating notifications to one or moreusers who have indicated interest in a media item and/or media itemgroup, suggesting that a media item be shared with one or more users,and/or other considerations), and/or other features and/or functions. Byway of non-limiting example, automatic routing of media items from asource computing platform to an end computing platform may be inresponse to analyzing metadata associated with the media items,extracting information from the media items, and/or based on othercriteria.

In some embodiments, the system may comprise one or more hardwareprocessors configured to execute one or more computer programcomponents. The computer program components may include one or more of afeature extraction component, a grouping component, a routing component,and/or other components.

In some embodiments, the feature extraction component may be configuredto obtain one or more digital media items from one or more sourcecomputing platforms. Individual ones of the media items may comprise oneor more of a photo, a video, an audio file, a text file, and/or otherdigital media item. In some embodiments, a source computing platform maybe associated with one or more of a human user, an automated machine,and/or other source. By way of non-limiting example, a user may providea media item by “uploading” the media item to the feature extractioncomponent of the one or more processors from a source computing platformover a network (e.g., the Internet).

In some embodiments, a user providing one or more media items via acomputing platform may comprise utilizing a user interface presented onthe computing platform. The user may upload a media item based oninstructions presented on the user interface.

In some embodiments, a computing platform may be configured to provide amedia item automatically based on the computing platform (and/or othercommunicatively coupled device) generating the media item (e.g.,automatically and/or based on user input). By way of non-limitingexample, a computing platform may be communicatively coupled to asecurity camera and/or other devices. The computing platform may receivecontent (e.g., video, audio, and/or images) from the security cameraand/or other devices. The computing platform may be configured tocommunicate (e.g., over a network, such as the Internet) the receivedcontent to the feature extraction component automatically in response tothe content being generated by the camera, and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, the feature extraction component may be configuredto obtain information associated with individual ones of the obtainedmedia items. The information may correspond to a context of individualones of the media items, and/or other information. In some embodiments,the obtained information may include information provided with the mediaitems. By way of non-limiting example, obtained information may compriseinformation stored as metadata provided with a given media item.Metadata and/or other information associated with a given media item mayinclude one or more timestamps, a physical location where the media itemwas generated, user-generated information, source-generated information,and/or other information. In some embodiments, metadata and/or otherinformation associated with a given media item may be referred to as a“label” and/or “tag” associated with the given media item, and/or otherterms.

In some embodiments, the feature extraction component may be configuredsuch that the obtained information comprises information determined from(e.g., extracted from) the media items. By way of non-limiting example,the feature extraction component may be configured to determineinformation about a given media item based on analyzing content of themedia item, and/or other considerations. In some embodiments, thefeature extraction component may be configured to determine content of amedia item using one or more content extraction techniques. By way ofnon-limiting example, a content extraction technique may comprise objectrecognition, word searches, speed recognitions, natural languageprocessing, object detection, music genre classification, and/or otherconsiderations.

In some embodiments, the grouping component may be configured toassociate one or more media items with one or more groups based on theobtained information, grouping criteria, and/or other information.Herein, the terms “group” and “collection” may be used interchangeablyto generally mean one or more media items that may be related based onsimilarity. In some embodiments, association may be based on contentsimilarity, contextual similarity, metadata similarity, user-definedsimilarity, and/or other information.

In some embodiments, the routing component may be configured tocommunicate the obtained one or more media items, and/or otherinformation (e.g., notifications) to one or more end computingplatforms. In some embodiments, the routing component may be configuredsuch that communicating media items and/or other information may bebased on a particular group with which a given media item may beassociated, a particular group with which a user and/or end computingplatform may be associated, a triggered action, and/or otherinformation.

These and other features, and characteristics of the present technology,as well as the methods of operation and functions of the relatedelements of structure and the combination of parts and economies ofmanufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of thefollowing description and the appended claims with reference to theaccompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification,wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in thevarious figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that thedrawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only andare not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. As usedin the specification and in the claims, the singular forms of “a,” “an,”and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictatesotherwise. In addition, as used in the specification and the claims, theterm “or” means “and/or” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for communicating digital media itemsbetween source computing platforms and end computing platforms based oninformation associated with the media items, in accordance with one ormore embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram of information flow of a system forcommunicating digital media items between source computing platforms andend computing platforms based on information associated with the mediaitems, in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method of communicating digital media items betweensource computing platforms and end computing platforms based oninformation associated with the media items, in accordance with one ormore embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 for facilitating the sharing of digitalmedia items between source computing platforms and end computingplatforms based on information associated with the media items, inaccordance with one or more embodiments. In some embodiments, a sourcecomputing platform may comprise one or more computing platforms 104associated with users, one or more computing platforms 104 that may beautomated, an external resource 105, and/or other sources. A given mediaitem may include one or more of a photo (or other image), video, audio,text, web content, combinations thereof, and/or other considerations. Insome embodiments, information associated with individual ones of themedia items may comprise information stored as metadata associated withthe media items. In some embodiments, metadata may be referred to as“labels,” “tags,” and/or other terms.

In some embodiments, communication of media items between source and endcomputing platform may be facilitated by communications routed throughnetwork 106, server 102, and/or other components of system 100 and/orone or more external entities. By way of non-limiting example, users ofthe system may be “subscribers” of the system 100. The users maysubscribe to a particular type or types of media items that are sharedby one or more source computing platforms 104.

In some embodiments, the system 100 may comprise one or more hardwareprocessors 118 configured to execute one or more computer programcomponents. The computer program components may include one or more of auser component 108, a feature extraction component 110, a groupingcomponent 112, a routing component 114, and/or other components.

In some embodiments, the user component 108 may be configured to accessand/or manage one or more user profiles and/or user informationassociated with users of the system 100. The one or more user profilesand/or user information may include information stored by server 102,one or more of the computing platforms 104, and/or other storagelocations. The user profiles may include, for example, informationidentifying users (e.g., a username or handle, a number, an identifier,and/or other identifying information), security login information (e.g.,a login code or password), subscription and/or membership information,usage information (e.g., a login history indicating the frequency and/oramount of times the user logs in to the user accounts), demographicinformation associated with users, interaction history among users,information stated by users, browsing history of users, a computingplatform identification associated with a user, a phone numberassociated with a user, and/or other information related to users.

In some embodiments, subscription and/or membership information managedby the user component 108 may include information indicating media itemsa user may be interested in, media item groups a user may be interestedin, and/or other information. In some embodiments, user interest may beprovided by information stated by users (e.g., a user may set up a userprofile indicating their areas of interest). In some embodiments, userinterest may be derived from user actions and/or other information. Byway of non-limiting example, user interest may be derived from abrowsing history of the user (e.g., which media items the user searchedfor and/or viewed for an extended period of time, and/or otherconsiderations), information provided by another user (e.g., a parentand/or guardian may select and/or limit the media items, types, and/orgroups that may be available to a child user, and/or otherconsiderations), and/or other information. Subscription and/ormembership information may be considered in other ways.

In some embodiments, the feature extraction component 110 may beconfigured to obtain one or more digital media items from one or moresource computing platforms 104. In some embodiments a source computingplatform 104 may be associated with one or more of a human user, anautomated machine, and/or other source. By way of non-limiting example,a user may provide a media item by “uploading” the media item to thefeature extraction component 110 from a source computing platform 104over the network 106 (e.g., the Internet, and/or other network).

In some embodiments, a user providing one or more media items via acomputing platform may comprise utilizing a user interface (not shown inFIG. 1) presented on an associated computing platform 104. By way ofnon-limiting example, a user may upload a media item based oninstructions presented by the user interface. In some embodiments, acomputing platform 104 may include one or more media input devicesincluded with, or coupled to, the computing platform 104. By way ofnon-limiting example, a media input device may include one or more of adocument scanner, a camera, a microphone, a port configured to becommunicatively coupled to a mobile device (e.g., a digital camera),and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, a source computing platform 104 may be configuredto provide a media item automatically as based on the source computingplatform 104 (and/or other communicatively coupled device) generatingthe media item (e.g., automatically and/or based on user input). By wayof non-limiting example, a source computing platform 104 may becommunicatively coupled to a security camera and/or other devices. Thesource computing platform 104 may receive content (e.g., video, audio,and/or images) from the security camera and/or other devices. The sourcecomputing platform 104 may be configured to communicate (e.g., over anetwork, such as the Internet) the received content to the featureextraction component 110 automatically based on the content beinggenerated by the camera and/or received by the source computing platform104, and/or other considerations. Other embodiments of the system arepresented herein below.

In some embodiments, the feature extraction component 110 may beconfigured to obtain information associated with individual ones of theobtained media items. The information may correspond to a context ofindividual ones of the media items. In some embodiments, the obtainedinformation may include information provided with the media items. Byway of non-limiting example, obtained information may compriseinformation stored as metadata provided with a given media item.Metadata and/or other information associated with a given media item mayinclude one or more timestamps, a physical location where the media itemwas generated, user-generated information, source-generated information,and/or other information. In some embodiments, metadata and/or otherinformation associated with a given media item may be referred to as a“label” and/or “tag” associated with the given media item, and/or otherterms.

In some embodiments, the feature extraction component 110 may beconfigured such that the obtained information comprises informationdetermined from the media items. By way of non-limiting example, thefeature extraction component 110 may be configured to determineinformation about a given media item based on content of the media item.In some embodiments, the feature extraction component 110 may beconfigured to determine content of a media item using one or morecontent extraction techniques. By way of non-limiting example, a contentextraction technique may comprise object recognition, word searches,natural language processing, object detection, music genreclassification, speedy recognition and/or other considerations.

By way of non-limiting example, the feature extraction component 110 maybe configured to obtain a first media item, and/or other media items.The first media item may be obtained from a first source computingplatform. The first source computing platform may be associated with afirst user. In some embodiments, the first source computing platform maybe associated with a first automated machine.

In some embodiments, the grouping component 112 may be configured toassociate one or more media items with one or more groups based on theobtained information, and/or other information. Herein, the terms“group” and “collection” may be used interchangeably to generally meanone or more media items that may be related based on similarity. In someembodiments, association may be based on content similarity, contextualsimilarity, metadata similarity, user-defined similarity, and/or othersimilarity between media items in a given group. Grouping may beaccomplished in other ways.

By way of non-limiting example, the grouping component 112 may beconfigured to associate the first media item with a first group and/orother groups. The first group may correspond to one or more media itemsthat may be related based on similarity. By way of non-limiting example,the first group may also include a second media item. The second mediaitem and first media item may be related by a first similarity metric.The first similarity metric may be based on content of the media items,context of the media items, metadata of the media items, user-definedinformation, and/or other information. By way of non-limiting example,the first and second media items may include metadata indicating a sameor similar physical location of content of the media items. The contentmay be referenced graphically (e.g., in an image and/or video),textually, and/or other considerations. In some embodiments, the firstgroup may be associated with the physical location and/or othersimilarity metrics.

In some embodiments, the routing component 114 may be configured tocommunicate the obtained one or more media items, and/or otherinformation to one or more end computing platforms. In some embodiments,the routing component 114 may be configured such that communicatingmedia items and/or other information may be based on a particular groupwith which a given media item may be associated, a particular group withwhich a user and/or end computing platform may be associated, atriggered action, and/or other information. By way of non-limitingexample, the routing component 114 may be configured to communicate thefirst media item to a first end computing platform associated with asecond user based on the second user being associated with the firstgroup, and/or other considerations. Triggered actions are described inmore detail below.

FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram of information flow in a system 200 forfacilitating the sharing of digital media items between source computingplatforms and end computing platforms based on information associatedwith the media items, in accordance with one or more embodiments. Insome embodiments, system 200 may comprise one or more hardwareprocessors 201 configured to execute one or more computer programcomponents (not shown in FIG. 2) to facilitate the communication ofinformation. In some embodiments, the communication of informationwithin system 200 may be facilitated by one or more computer programcomponents the same or similar as computer program components 108-114(see, e.g., FIG. 1), and/or other components. By way of non-limitingexample, system 200 may be the same or similar to system 100 in FIG. 1.In some embodiments, one or more features and/or functions attributed tosystem 200 may be similarly employed in system 100, and/or vice versa.

Referring now to the diagram in FIG. 2, a first source computingplatform 202 may be in communication with the one or more processors201. By way of non-limiting example, first source computing platform 202may communicate with processor(s) 201 over a network, such as theInternet and/or other network. The first source computing platform 202may be configured to communicate one or more media items 204 and/orother information to the one or more processors 201. Informationassociated with the one or more media items 204 may be obtained 206 atthe one or more processors 201. Information may be obtained based onmetadata and/or other information associated with the one or more mediaitems 204 being provided with the one or more media items 204, metadataand/or other information determined from the one or more media items204, and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, information associated with the one or more mediaitems 204 may include, but is not limited to: one or more usersassociated with the one or more media items 204; one or more computingplatforms associated with the one or more media items 204 (e.g., firstsource computing platform 204 and/or other computing platforms); one ormore locations associated with the one or more media items 204; date(s)and times(s) associated with one or more media items 204; objects,categories, concepts, and/or semantics associated with the one or moremedia items 204; one or more reasons why the one or more media items 204may have been created and/or shared; mechanism by which the one or moremedia items 204 were created and/or used; and/or other information.

In some embodiments, one or more users associated with the one or moremedia items 204 and/or one or more computing platforms associated withthe one or more media items 204 may be determined from informationincluded as metadata associated with the one or more media items 204,and/or other considerations. The metadata may be user generatedmetadata, first source computing platform 202 generated metadata, and/orother considerations. In some embodiments, the one or more usersassociated with the one or more media items 204 and/or the one or morecomputing platforms associated with the one or more media items 204 maybe determined based on analysis of the content of the one or more mediaitems 204. By way of non-limiting example, analysis may include one ormore of automatic recognition of faces in a photo and/or video, throughnamed entity extraction from text of the one or more media items 204, byanalysis of a history of actions a user performed involving the one ormore media items 204 (e.g., sending and/or sharing the one or more mediaitems 204 with other user and/or computing platforms), and/or otherconsiderations.

In some embodiments, locations associated with the one or more mediaitems 204 may be determined from information included as metadataassociated with the one or more media items 204. Locations and/or otherinformation may include a GPS location, location tags provided by auser, information determined based on analysis of the content of the oneor more media items 204, and/or other information. By way ofnon-limiting example, analysis may include one or more of automaticrecognition of landmarks and/or other objects in a photograph that maybe associated with a particular location, and/or other considerations.Location features may be specific geo-referenced locations such as apair of latitude and longitude coordinates, a general region such as acity, state, and/or country, a class of locations of which one or moreinstances exist, and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, dates and/or times associated with the one or moremedia items 204 may be determined from information included as metadataassociated with the one or more media items 204. Dates and/or times maybe determined based on one or more of a creation timestamp, analysis ofthe content of the one or more media items 204, and/or otherconsiderations. By way of non-limiting example, analysis may include oneor more of recognizing and/or detecting time of day based on lightingconditions in a photo and/or video, determining a particular date and/ortime at which a photo was taken by recognizing a configuration ofobjects in the photo and/or video known to have uniquely occurred at aparticular date and/or time, and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, objects, categories, concepts, and/or semanticsassociated with the one or more media items 204 may be determined frominformation included as metadata associated with the one or more mediaitems 204. Objects, categories, and/or concepts may be determined basedon one or more of user-provided tags, analysis of the content of the oneor more media items 204, and/or other considerations. By way ofnon-limiting example, analysis may include one or more of recognizingobjects in a photo based on appearance, identifying concepts related toa photo based on an analysis of objects present in the photo, anarrangement of one or more objects, stylistic properties of a photo,and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, reason(s) why the one or more media items 204 werecreated and/or shared may be determined from information included asmetadata associated with the one or more media items 204. Reason(s) whythe one or more media items 204 were created and/or shared may bedetermined based on one or more analysis of actions taken by the userinvolving the one or more media items 204, and/or other considerations.By way of non-limiting example, analysis may include determining whetherthe one or more media items 204 were posted publicly such as on a webpage, social network, and/or broadcast media, transmitted privately to agroup of individuals and/or set of computing platforms for a givenindividual, and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, a mechanism by which the content was created orused may be determined from information included as metadata associatedwith the one or more media items 204. These features may be extractedfrom metadata attached to the one or more media items 204, such as themodel of camera used to capture a photo, by analysis of actions the userperformed involving the one or more media items 204, the means by whichthe content may be transmitted, and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, features and/or information may be extracted fromthe one or more media items 204. By way of non-limiting example, featureand/or other information extraction may be based on one or more ofautomatic recognition algorithms such as machine learning systems,software and/or hardware systems such as clocks and/or GPS devices,information generated manually by a user and/or other human labelers,and/or other considerations. In some embodiments, feature and/or otherinformation extraction may be performed in real-time as the one or moremedia items 204 are obtained. The extracted features and/or otherinformation may be attached to the one or more media items 204 asmetadata. The extracted features and/or other information may includeinformation accumulated “offline” and/or from other systems and/orsources.

The one or more media items 204 may be associated 208 (labeled“Grouping” 208 in FIG. 2) with one or more groups based on the obtained206 information. In some embodiments, the association 208 may be basedon the features and/or other information extracted and/or determined inthe previous step, and/or other information.

In some embodiments, the one or more processors 201 may be configured toassociate 208 the one or more media items 204 with one or more groupsbased on the obtained 206 information and/or a set of criteria 209. Byway of non-limiting example, the criteria 209 may include informationindicating how and/or why individual ones of the one or more media itemsshould be grouped with a certain group. A group may correspond to somefixed criteria 209 and/or some dynamically generated criteria 209 basedon existing groups, a pool of known dynamic and/or fixed criteria 209,and/or other factors. By way of non-limiting example, given criteria 209may specify that if a media item includes particular metadata, the mediaitem should be associated with a particular group. By way ofnon-limiting example, first criteria may be associated with a firstgroup 212, second criteria may be associated with a second group 214,and/or other criteria may be associated with one or more other groups.

In some embodiments, one or more of the one or more media items 204 maybe assigned to more than one group. That is to say, association of agiven media item with a given group may not preclude its associationwith any number of other groups. In some embodiments, groups may beassociated with one or more electronic storage components which allowsfor long term information storage. Such information may include ahistory of one or more media items 204, user viewing history and/orbehavior, time delays in one or more media items 204 being viewed by oneor more users, and/or other information to be stored in association witha group. In some embodiments, a group may be referred to as a channel,which facilitates routing one or more media items 204 directly to a userand/or computing platform that may be associated with the group. In someembodiments, the channels may or may not require long term informationstorage, such as information associated with one-time alerts, lowpriority media items, and/or other considerations. By way ofnon-limiting example, second group 214 may be associated with firstgroup storage 216.

In some embodiments, a group may be formed based on a set of criteria209 being defined and/or determined. The criteria 209 may specifymetadata and/or other information that media items must match in orderto be included in the group. In some examples, criteria 209 may bespecified manually, updated dynamically throughout the life of thegroup, determined automatically by a grouping component 208, and/orother considerations. Criteria 209 may be applied as filters on theobtained 206 information in order to include or discard media items in agroup using, for example, any AND, OR, NOT, and/or other combination ofsuitable syntax. By way of non-limiting example, given criteria 209 mayspecify “media items having first metadata AND second metadata OR thirdmetadata, but NOT fourth metadata, are to be grouped in GROUP 1.”Criteria may be defined in other ways.

In some embodiments, one or more media items may be grouped into a groupbased on similarity criteria between individual pairs of two or moremedia items. As such, the generated groups may include media items thatmay be more similar to one another than to one or more media itemsoutside of the group.

In some embodiments, similarity criteria may be determined based on ascoring function, and/or other information. The inputs of a scoringfunction may include any and/or all of the information extracted fromthe individual ones of the one or more media items 204. Output of thescoring function may include a numeric score representing the degree ofsimilarity between at least two of the one or more media items 204.

In some embodiments, a scoring function may include a computation basedon a number and/or fraction of matching features and/or other matchinginformation associated with the one or more media items 204, aqualitative comparison of individual features or combinations offeatures, and/or any combination and/or transformation of values usingmathematical functions. Such a similarity computation may be performedautomatically by a computer, manually by a person, and/or as acombination of manual and/or automatic steps. By way of non-limitingexample, at least two of the one or more media items 204 with highsimilarity scores may be assigned to the same group, while one or moreof the media items 204 with lower similarity scores are may be assignedto different groups.

In some embodiments, similarity may be determined based ontransformation of an input of a scoring function into an alternativerepresentation space. The alternative representation space may beconfigured such that individual features and/or other informationassociated with the media items may be represented by a collection ofvalues comprising a single point in the new representation space.Distance between one or more media items may be computed by measuringdistance between the points in the space using some metric. The metricmay include, for example, Euclidian distance between points, and/orother considerations.

In some embodiments, one or more media items 204 may be grouped withother media items based on points represented in the alternativerepresentation space having low distance to one another relative todistances between points representing other media items.

In some embodiments, over time, the one or more media items 204 maychange, new media items may be created, and/or the existing one or moremedia items 204 may be removed. Any of these operations may cause amedia item's association with any number of groups to change. Changesmay be generated by actions performed by a human user, such as taking anew photo, uploading a new media item to the processor 201, and/or otherconsiderations. Changes may also be generated by computing platformsand/or electronic devices, such as a camera, video recorder, sensor,and/or other device or platform that automatically generates one or moremedia items either on a recurring basis and/or in response to one ormore stimuli. By way of non-limiting example, stimuli may includedetection of motion, changes in lighting conditions or new information,and/or other considerations. These changes, regardless of how they aregenerated, may be detected and/or used to trigger any number of actions.

In some embodiments, triggered actions may include, but are not limitedto: automatically generating a notification to one or more users whohave indicated interest in a particular media item and/or group;suggesting actions that a user and/computing platform may take with amedia items and/or group; generating targeted advertisements based onattributes of a media item and/or group; and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, automatically generated notifications may becommunicated to individual users, group of users, individual computingplatforms, groups of computing platforms, and/or other considerations.By way of non-limiting example, the first group 212 may include one ormore of the one or more media items 204. The first group 212 maycorrespond to a group messaging thread where any user (e.g., a user offirst source computing platform 202) can be a source for new mediaitems. Media items may be uploaded to the messaging thread and/ortransmitted to all other users in the thread. By way of non-limitingexample, the second group 214 may include one or more of the one or moremedia items 204. The second group 214 may be associated with a list ofanomalous security camera photos. Any new anomalous photo may trigger analert sent to a monitoring agency who may be associated with the secondgroup (e.g., the agency may be associated with second end computingplatform 220, and/or other considerations).

In some embodiments, suggested actions may include suggestion that auser and/or computing platform share a media item with a set of usersand/or computing platforms based on their respective membership in agroup of one or more media items that may be frequently shared with thesame users and/or computing platforms. In some embodiments, performingsuch actions may be done automatically by a computing platform on behalfof a user.

In some embodiments, generating targeted advertisements may improverelevance of the advertisements to a user's interest's and/or behavior.

In some embodiments, after grouping, the one or more media items 204 maythen be routed 210 (e.g., electronically communicated) to one or more ofgroup storage (e.g., a storage location configured to store one or moremedia items and/or other information associated with a particulargroup), one or more users associated with end computing platforms 218,220, and/or 222 associated with one or more groups 212, 214 with whichthe one or more media items 204 may be associated, and/or otherconsiderations. To route to an individual user, the router 210 may routea given media item based on the grouping accomplished at 208. By way ofnon-limiting example, if a user associated with first end computingplatform 218 is associated with the first group 212, the router 210 mayroute one or more of the one or more media items 204 associated with thefirst group 212 to the first end computing platform 218. In someembodiments, a group (e.g., second group 214) may have multiple members,such as users associated with the second end computing platform 220 andthird end computing platform 222. The users at the second end computingplatform 220 and/or third end computing platform 222 may or may not bethe same set of users who act as sources of the one or more media item204. By way of non-limiting example, a first user of first sourcecomputing platform 202 may contribute media items, while a second userassociated with the first end computing platform 218, a third userassociated with the second end computing platform 220, and a fourth userassociated with the third computing platform 222 may receive one or moreof the media items 204 as well as contribute media items. In someembodiments, the status of a computing platform being an “end” or“source” may change depending on the actions of the user.

In some embodiments, routing 210 may be implemented at endpoints (forexample, computing platforms such as mobile computing devices and/ordesktop computers of users), routing nodes and/or servers innetwork-based services, internally via one or more processors 201,and/or other considerations. Routing 210 may be layered on top ofnon-intelligent network equipment to perform the intelligent routing ofone or more media items 204 throughout a network.

The following are non-limiting illustrations of embodiments of system100 (FIG. 1) and/or system 200 (FIG. 2) presented herein. It is notedthat these descriptions are provided for illustrative purposes. Thevarious embodiments should not be considered limiting with respect totypes of computing platforms and/or related devices, types of mediaitems, and/or the flow of information between various components.

In some embodiments, one or more aspects of a system for facilitatingthe sharing of digital media items between source computing platformsand end computing platforms based on information associated with themedia items may encompass a camera, photo, and/or video organizationtool. Such a system may be configured to automatically associatephotos/video with one or more particular groups and/or route thephotos/videos to one or more users and/or groups of users. By way ofnon-limiting example, a camera having network capabilities mayautomatically sends photos of particular children (based on featuresextracted using face and/or image recognition) to computing platformsassociated with family members associated with a group.

In some embodiments, a group may correspond to photos and/or posts of alive event. The photos and/or posts may be obtained and/or associatedwith the group by “listening” to a public channel (e.g. Twitter) as asource. In some embodiments, one or more photos and/or posts may beautomatically selected based on some criteria (e.g., related to the liveevent, e.g. concert, rally, and/or emergency) using image recognitionand/or natural language processing in the feature extraction stage. Atriggered action may include one or more of the selected photos and/orposts being republished to another public channel (e.g., another Twitterfeed, and/or other considerations).

In some embodiments, a feed of one or more media items generated from awebcam, security cam, drone, and/or satellite may be obtained.Interested users may subscribe to groups that are created based oncriteria applied to the feed. The criteria may describe their interestssuch as content with vehicles in it, suspicious packages, fire, aparticular person of interest, and/or other considerations.

In some embodiments, an automated computing platform such as an adserver may add media items to a group based on filter criteria.

In some embodiments, groups may be defined by brand and/or product-basedfilter criteria. The groups may be used for publishing media itemsrelated to the brand and/or product to interested subscribers. By way ofnon-limiting example, photos of consumers wearing a particular brand ofclothing may be published automatically to a group for fans of thatbrand, and/or other considerations.

It is noted that the depiction in FIG. 2 and accompanying descriptionsare not intended to be limiting. Instead, they are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be considered limiting with respectto media items, item groups, grouping criteria, source computingplatforms, end computing platforms, and/or content extraction.

In FIG. 1, the server 102, computing platform(s) 104, and/or externalresources 105 may be operatively linked via one or more electroniccommunication links. For example, such electronic communication linksmay be established, at least in part, via a communication network 106such as the Internet and/or other networks. It will be appreciated thatthis is not intended to be limiting, and that the scope of thisdisclosure includes embodiments in which server 102, computingplatform(s) 104, and/or external resources 105 may be operatively linkedvia some other communication media.

The external resources 105 may include sources of information, hosts,and/or providers of information outside of system 100, external entitiesparticipating with system 100, and/or other resources. In someembodiments, some or all of the functionality attributed herein toexternal resources 105 may be provided by resources included in system100 (e.g., in server 102).

The server 102 may include electronic storage 116, one or moreprocessors 118, and/or other components. The server 102 may includecommunication lines or ports to enable the exchange of information witha network and/or other computing platforms. Illustration of server 102in FIG. 1 is not intended to be limiting. The server 102 may include aplurality of hardware, software, and/or firmware components operatingtogether to provide the functionality attributed herein to server 102.

Electronic storage 116 may comprise electronic storage media thatelectronically stores information. The electronic storage media ofelectronic storage 116 may include one or both of system storage that isprovided integrally (i.e., substantially non-removable) with server 102and/or removable storage that is removably connectable to server 102via, for example, a port or a drive. A port may include a USB port, afirewire port, and/or other port. A drive may include a disk driveand/or other drive. Electronic storage 116 may include one or more ofoptically readable storage media (e.g., optical disks, etc.),magnetically readable storage media (e.g., magnetic tape, magnetic harddrive, floppy drive, etc.), electrical charge-based storage media (e.g.,EEPROM, RAM, etc.), solid-state storage media (e.g., flash drive, etc.),and/or other electronically readable storage media. The electronicstorage 116 may include one or more virtual storage resources (e.g.,cloud storage, a virtual private network, and/or other virtual storageresources). Electronic storage 116 may store software algorithms,information determined by processor(s) 118, information received fromserver 102, and/or other information that enables server 102 to functionas described herein.

Processor(s) 118 is configured to provide information processingcapabilities in server 102. As such, processor 118 may include one ormore of a digital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuitdesigned to process information, an analog circuit designed to processinformation, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronicallyprocessing information. Although processor 118 is shown in FIG. 1 as asingle entity, this is for illustrative purposes only. In someembodiments, processor 118 may include one or more components. Thesecomponents may be physically located within the same device, orprocessor 118 may represent processing functionality of a plurality ofdevices operating in coordination. The processor 118 may be configuredto execute components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114. Processor 118 may beconfigured to execute components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114 by software;hardware; firmware; some combination of software, hardware, and/orfirmware; and/or other mechanisms for configuring processingcapabilities on processor 118.

It should be appreciated that, although components 108, 110, 112, and/or114 are illustrated in FIG. 1 as being co-located within a singlecomponent, in embodiments in which processor 118 includes multiplecomponents, one or more of components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114 may belocated remotely from the other components. The description of thefunctionality provided by the different components 108, 110, 112, and/or114 described above is for illustrative purposes and is not intended tobe limiting, as any of components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114 may providemore or less functionality than is described. For example, one or moreof components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114 may be eliminated, and some orall of its functionality may be provided by other ones of components108, 110, 112, 114, and/or other components. As another example,processor 118 may be configured to execute one or more additionalcomponents that may perform some or all of the functionality attributedbelow to one of components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114. In someembodiments, one or more feature and/or functions of server 102 may beattributed to one or more computing platforms 104. That is, one or morecomputing platforms 104 may be configured to carry out one or morefeatures of server 102 herein with or without communication to server102, and/or other considerations.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method 300 facilitating the communication ofdigital media items between source computing platforms and end computingplatforms based on information associated with the media items. Theoperations of method 300 presented below are intended to beillustrative. In some embodiments, method 300 may be accomplished withone or more additional operations not described, and/or without one ormore of the operations discussed. Additionally, the order in which theoperations of method 300 are illustrated in FIG. 3 and described belowis not intended to be limiting.

In some embodiments, method 300 may be implemented in one or moreprocessing devices (e.g., a digital processor, an analog processor, adigital circuit designed to process information, an analog circuitdesigned to process information, a state machine, a functionally limitedprocessing device, and/or other mechanisms for electronically processinginformation). The one or more processing devices may include one or moredevices executing some or all of the operations of method 300 inresponse to instructions stored electronically on an electronic storagemedium. The one or more processing devices may include one or moredevices configured through hardware, firmware, and/or software to bespecifically designed for execution of one or more of the operations ofmethod 300.

Referring now to method 300 in FIG. 3, at an operation 302, one or moremedia items may be obtained from one or more media item source computingplatforms. Individual ones of the media items may comprise one or moreof a photo, video, audio, a text, and/or other information. In someembodiments, operation 302 may be performed by a feature extractioncomponent the same as or similar to feature extraction component 110(shown in FIG. 1 and described herein).

At an operation 304, information associated with an individual one ofthe media items may be obtained. The information may be obtained frommetadata provided with the one or more media items. The information maybe obtained by determining and/or extracting information and/or othermetadata from the media items. In some embodiments, operation 304 may beperformed by a feature extraction component the same as or similar tothe feature extraction component 110 (shown in FIG. 1 and describedherein).

At an operation 306, one or more media items may be associated with oneor more groups based on the obtained information and/or otherinformation. The group associations may be based on grouping criteria.In some embodiments, operation 306 may be performed by a groupingcomponent the same as or similar to the grouping component 112 (shown inFIG. 1 and described herein).

Although the present technology has been described in detail for thepurpose of illustration based on what is currently considered to be themost practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood thatsuch detail is solely for that purpose and that the technology is notlimited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intendedto cover modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within thespirit and scope of the appended claims. For example, it is to beunderstood that the present technology contemplates that, to the extentpossible, one or more features of any embodiment can be combined withone or more features of any other embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for facilitating routing of media itemsbetween user devices, the system comprising: a routing computer systemcomprising one or more processors programmed with computer programinstructions that, when executed, cause the routing computer system to:obtain images or videos from one or more sources; obtain, from theimages or videos, metadata associated with the images or videos; performobject recognition on contents of the images or videos to identifyindividuals or other objects in the images or videos; assign first andsecond images or videos of the images or videos to a first media itemgroup based on (i) the first and second images or videos having similarmetadata and (ii) the object recognition identifying an individual orobject in the first image or video and an individual or object in thesecond image or video that are similar to each other; cause the firstimage or video to be provided to one or more user devices of one or moreusers based on (i) the assignment of the first image or video to thefirst media item group and (ii) the one or more users being associatedwith the first media item group; determine a group criteria for thefirst media item group based on the assignment of the first and secondimages or videos to the first media item group; generate one or moreadvertisements based on the group criteria; assign the one or moreadvertisements to the first media item group; and cause the one or moreadvertisements to be provided to the one or more user devices of the oneor more users based on (i) the assignment of the one or moreadvertisements to the first media item group and (ii) the one or moreusers being associated with the first media item group.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the routing computer system is caused to: determine aparticular date or time at which a given image or video was taken byrecognizing a configuration of objects in the given image or video knownto have uniquely occurred at a particular date or time.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein obtaining the images or videos comprises automaticallyobtaining the first image or video from at least one source of the oneor more sources without the at least one source receiving a user inputspecifically identifying the first image or video to be provided to therouting computer system.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one ormore sources comprises a user device, and wherein obtaining the imagesor videos comprises automatically obtaining the first image or videofrom the user device without the user device receiving a user inputspecifically identifying the first image or video to be provided to therouting computer system.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein performingobject recognition on the contents of the images or videos comprisesrecognizing faces in the images or videos, and wherein assigning thefirst and second images or videos to the first media item group is based(i) a face in the first image or video being similar to a face in thesecond image or video and (ii) the metadata associated with the firstimage or video being similar to the metadata associated with the secondimage or video.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the routing computersystem is caused to: detect motion or a change in lighting conditions inthe first image or video; and generate one or more suggested actions tobe taken by the one or more users based on the detected motion or changein lighting conditions in the first image or video.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the routing computer system is caused to: detect motionin the second image or video; and generate one or more additionalsuggested actions to be taken by a user based on the detected motion inthe second image or video.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the routingcomputer system is caused to: detect a change in lighting conditions inthe second image or video; and generate one or more additional suggestedactions to be taken by a user based on the detected change in lightingconditions in the second image or video.
 9. A method for facilitatingrouting of media items between user devices, the method beingimplemented by a routing computer system comprising one or moreprocessor executing computer program instructions that, when executed,perform the method, the method comprising: obtaining images or videosfrom one or more sources; performing object recognition on contents ofthe images or videos to identify individuals or other objects in theimages or videos; assigning first and second images or videos of theimages or videos to a first media item group based on (i) the first andsecond images or videos having similar metadata and (ii) the objectrecognition identifying an individual or object in the first image orvideo and an individual or object in the second image or video that aresimilar to each other; causing the first image or video to be providedto one or more user devices of one or more users based on (i) theassignment of the first image or video to the first media item group and(ii) the one or more users being associated with the first media itemgroup; determining a group criteria for the first media item group basedon the assignment of the first and second images or videos to the firstmedia item group; generating one or more advertisements based on thegroup criteria; assigning the one or more advertisements to the firstmedia item group; and causing the one or more advertisements to beprovided to the one or more user devices of the one or more users basedon (i) the assignment of the one or more advertisements to the firstmedia item group and (ii) the one or more users being associated withthe first media item group.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: determining a particular date or time at which a given imageor video was taken by recognizing a configuration of objects in thegiven image or video known to have uniquely occurred at a particulardate or time.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein obtaining the images orvideos comprises automatically obtaining the first image or video fromat least one source of the one or more sources without the at least onesource receiving a user input specifically identifying the first imageor video to be provided to the routing computer system.
 12. The methodof claim 9, wherein the one or more sources comprises a user device, andwherein obtaining the images or videos comprises automatically obtainingthe first image or video from the user device without the user devicereceiving a user input specifically identifying the first image or videoto be provided to the routing computer system.
 13. The method of claim9, wherein performing object recognition on the contents of the imagesor videos comprises recognizing faces in the images or videos, andwherein assigning the first and second images or videos to the firstmedia item group is based on (i) a face in the first image or videobeing similar to a face in the second image or video and (ii) themetadata associated with the first image or video being similar to themetadata associated with the second image or video.
 14. The method ofclaim 9, further comprising: detecting motion or a change in lightingconditions in the first image or video; and generating one or moresuggested actions to be taken by the one or more users based on thedetected motion or change in lighting conditions in the first image orvideo.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable media comprisinginstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causeoperations comprising: obtaining images or videos from one or moresources; performing object recognition on contents of the images orvideos to identify individuals or other objects in the images or videos;assigning first and second images or videos of the images or videos to afirst media item group based on (i) the first and second images orvideos having similar metadata and (ii) the object recognitionidentifying an individual or object in the first image or video and anindividual or object in the second image or video that are similar toeach other; causing the first image or video to be provided to one ormore user devices of one or more users based on (i) the assignment ofthe first image or video to the first media item group and (ii) the oneor more users being associated with the first media item group;determining a group criteria for the first media item group based on theassignment of the first and second images or videos to the first mediaitem group; generating one or more advertisements based on the groupcriteria; assigning the one or more advertisements to the first mediaitem group; and causing the one or more advertisements to be provided tothe one or more user devices of the one or more users based on (i) theassignment of the one or more advertisements to the first media itemgroup and (ii) the one or more users being associated with the firstmedia item group.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable media ofclaim 15, the operations comprising: determining a particular date ortime at which a given image or video was taken by recognizing aconfiguration of objects in the given image or video known to haveuniquely occurred at a particular date or time.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 15, wherein obtaining the images orvideos comprises automatically obtaining the first image or video fromat least one source of the one or more sources without the at least onesource receiving a user input specifically identifying the first imageor video to be provided to a routing computer system.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, the operationscomprising: wherein the one or more sources comprises a user device, andwherein obtaining the images or videos comprises automatically obtainingthe first image or video from the user device without the user devicereceiving a user input specifically identifying the first image or videoto be provided to a routing computer system.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 15, the operations comprising:detecting motion or a change in lighting conditions in the first imageor video; and generating one or more suggested actions to be taken bythe one or more users based on the detected motion or change in lightingconditions in the first image or video.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 15, wherein causing the first image orvideo to be provided to the one or more user devices comprisesautomatically transmitting the first image or video to the one or moreuser devices without a routing computer system receiving a user inputspecifically identifying the first image or video to be provided to theone or more user devices.